North Pole, Alaska Will Answer Letters To Santa After All

Letters that children mail to “Santa Claus, North Pole” will be destined for North Pole, Alaska after all, and the letters personally answered by dedicated volunteers. The program was initially shut down for logistical reasons, but restored after Rudolph paid a visit to Fairbanks and taught everyone the true meaning of Christmas. Or something like that.

The Santa’s Mailbag program implemented new security procedures after a registered sex offender in Maryland volunteered to answer letters last year. In order to keep children’s home addresses away from program volunteers, contact information on the letters is redacted, creating additional work for post office staff. Initially, the program ended in Alaska, but after the public and the mayor of North Pole, Alaska complained, it’s back!

The Postal Service announced earlier this week it would cancel the program, citing security concerns and incensing the mayor in North Pole, a community that prides itself in promoting the spirit of Christmas.

Withholding the letters to Santa called into question the future of Santa’s Mailbag, a volunteer effort to respond to children’s letters and that dates back 55 years.

Santa letters sent to the North Pole post office will be subject to federal security measures, making more work for postal employees. The Postal Service will redact children’s full names and addresses before the “Dear Santa” letters reach volunteers, officials said.

Childrens’ contact information remains safe, and Santa’s army of volunteer secretaries remains in business! Everyone wins, especially if the program does find a way to keep too much work from falling to postal workers at the busiest time of year.

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I was really disappointed to read that the program would be discontinued this year. That small (in the grand scheme of things) postal program going away felt like a piece of America broke off and floated away.

Well, even if the US program were to be killed, there are still ways you can send these things and get replies through other countries with similar programs. It would just cost more money to mail the letter. I believe that Canada Post does the same things for any letters they get (even international) addressed to

“Registered Sex Offender” is a scary phrase. But given how easy it is to get onto a sex offender registry these days, it’s not as damning as it sounds. Take part in a Naked Pumpkin Run? Sex offender. Be the victim of forcible rape by an underage boy? Sex offender. Be seen naked in your own kitchen by a trespassing peeping tom? Sex offender.

The intent of sex offender registries is to protect people from habitual offenders. But thanks to creative prosecutors charging people with things they technically didn’t do, and legislators writing too-vague laws on the subjects, the registries are mostly a failure.

Let’s be honest. After his recent diagnosis: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WltIGH_RHE8 This was Rudolphs wish to the Make A Wish Foundation. They came through. I know I will be donating to them now for all the good they really do. That last line wasn’t a joke.

After seeing this story run on the national news I thought a lot of little kids could see it and wouldn’t you know it, the next night Brian Williams addressed it at the end of the news cast to reassure the families that watched. Glad they decided to go ahead and help Santa out.

I’m not a parent, but I can say from observation that there are a lot worse things parents can do to their children than lie to them about Santa. Spoiling, not teaching manners, physical and mental abuse, etc., can have far more reaching impact on them, and how they will dysfunctionally interact with society when they are older.

Perhaps I’m wrong though. Maybe the prisons are filled with people that couldn’t handle the transition from “Santa is real” to “Santa is fiction”.

I know that is what made me commit my first felony. I was in a department store when I found out (last week). I then walked around the corner and saw someone who was the size of an elf and just fucking lost it. He fought valiantly for a wee man, but in the end I was able to subdue him by choking him with one of those velvet ropes.

Seriously though, I think if you want to teach your children that it isn’t OK to lie, then you should begin by being absolutely honest with them from the start.

It seems to me that the problem is that there is no “Santa Claus” in North Pole, AK, and thus, the letters remain the property of the USPS. So, if the town just started a business or something named “Santa Claus”, then the USPS could legitimately deliver the mail there, and then it wouldn’t be subject to the various issues that have arisen. Of course, this new “Santa Claus” would then be responsible for return postage to the children; it isn’t clear if the USPS has been covering that or not.